Thorns On A Rose
by vivalalulu
Summary: All Scarlett Rose Walker could wish for in her final year of Hogwarts is for memories that could last her a lifetime. Be careful what you wish for. With Sirius Black out on the lose, a werewolf as her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and two mysterious brothers transferring from Durmstrang, all Scarlett could wish for now was a way to get out of it all in one piece. PoA
1. A Walk Down Memory Lane (Prologue)

**Author's Note: I had started this story about 2 years ago when my fictional writing skills were not quite...'splendid', to put it in lighter terms. I hope that you will all enjoy the story and, if you wish to continue to the next few chapters(if you would like me updating at all), I will continue writing where I had left off(chapter 18 i believe...) and perhaps my writing will have improved by then :P I hope you all enjoy!:)**

Ch 1: A Walk Down Memory Lane (Prologue)

Whispers. That's all that could be heard as Rosa walked into the Great Hall alongside Percy Weasley. Tears prickling in my eyes, I wiped them away ferociously, keeping my head held high. Graduation day had finally arrived and I would soon be leaving the one place that felt the most like home to me. 'Well this sucks,' I thought to myself bitterly. Seeing as Rosa had been Head Girl that year, the Head Boy and her were to get their diplomas last, followed by the ceremonial speech of honor that took longer than anyone would have liked. Even though I would be leaving this amazing school, I was going to make sure that this day would be a special one I would always remember fondly. This day could not have arrived, however, if I hadn't tried as hard as I had this year and all the previous years here at Hogwarts.

My first year was my most precious year, the year I had gotten sorted into Ravenclaw house. I, along with about a hundred and fifty other first year students, were led into the Great Hall by Professor McGonagall. Three other girls, whom I had met on the train, trailed behind me and were just as excited as I was.

"Oh, I hope I get sorted into Slytherin! My entire family's been in it. They'd be real disappointed in me…" I remember Rosa saying. Rosabella Salvatori seemed at first extremely shy to me, but I was proved wrong later on in the years as we grew closer together as not just best friends, but practically sisters. Then Karen Roberts, the other girl I had met on the train, patted Rosa on the back and said,

"Don't worry your pretty little head there, Rosy!" Looking irritated, Rosa hissed, "I told you not to call me that! It's Rosa, just Rosa!" Karen grinned mischievously and nudged me gently in the sides. I giggled a little at her antics, knowing that I would be seeing more of this in the future. Me and her shared a lot in common; our love for fun, pranking, and just mischief in general.

"I bet this year's gonna suck…" murmured Penny, the last girl I had met on the train. Me and her had the most in common; our love of music, art, and several other similar habits and likes.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Pandora. This year'll probably be great," I told her. Just like Rosa, she hated the use of her first name along with her last name.

"You know I hate my name, Scarlett," she grumbled.

"How about we call you Pan! Like Peter Pan, or like that Greek goat lookin' god Pan!" said Karen. She always sounded excited on any topic she talked about, always making me feel happy. "You just gave me reasons not to be called that…who wants to be nicknamed after a goat god?!" exclaimed Penny. "It sticks out too much and I don't want a lot of attention. Just plain old Penny is fine. It's way better than…..Dora." At that moment, the Sorting began and the first name was called out.

"Andrews, Michael." A scrawny little boy with sandy hair and pale skin walked up to the stool. As he was walking, he tripped and made Karen and I laugh loudly, attracting the unwanted attention of our future Potions professor. He stared down at us menacingly with his unfathomable black eyes and sneered. I turned white in fear and snapped my head up towards the front of the Great Hall while Karen continued a staring contest with the professor. She had narrowed her eyes and copied his sneer. While she thought she looked menacing, it really just looked like she had to sneeze badly.

This infuriated the professor even more while the professors surrounding him broke out in laughter. The headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, silenced them all kindly and gave Karen and I a wink that you would expect someone's cool, rebellious uncle to give you. After a couple of more names, Penny was called.

"Gomez, Pandora." Before she walked up to the stool, she muttered something about hating her last name.

"I still can't believe she's Filipino when her last name is totally Spanish," Karen whispered. When the hat was placed on Penny's head, everything became silent. Her feet began fidgeting nervously on one of the bars on the stool. The hat then shouted out, "RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaw table began cheering loudly as she began walking towards the table with a satisfied smile. Sooner than I would have liked, my name was called out.

"Walker, Scarlett." I was frozen in fear, swallowing slowly. The last thing I wanted was to walk up there in front of over three hundred students. After what seemed like ages, somebody's nervous cough echoed in the hall and woke me up from my daze. I walked up towards the stool and Professor McGonagall gave me a sympathetic smile as I took my seat. When the hat was placed on my head, I jumped when I heard a voice.

"Ah, another Walker. I must admit, it is always quite exciting sorting people from your family. You each have such unique characteristics and…interesting thoughts." I rolled my eyes up to find that the hat on my head had a mouth and was talking to me.

"Are you…talking to me?" I had asked nervously. The hat chuckled.

"Yes I am. I see that you are a very curious person, and sometimes this curiosity gets you into a bit of trouble. Very adventurous and brave, always looking for something exciting to do, a true Gryffindor. You are also very kind and loyal to your friends and tolerate things to a certain degree. You cannot tolerate injustices, however, and believe in what is fair and right. Yet you lack hard work and are lazy. You think if you need to work hard for something, than you are not smart enough to get something easily." The hat was describing me perfectly, and that made me nervous. 'At least I'm not Hufflepuff material,' I thought to myself happily.

"So you are happy not being a Hufflepuff, aren't you?" chuckled the hat. I had forgotten that it could read my mind. "Well, I standby was I think, you are not a true Hufflepuff. I see a large quantity of ambition in you as you hope to prove yourself as a powerful witch. You strive for power and can be cunning when you want to, but find it pointless most of the time. You are not the sly kind of person to be sorted into Slytherin. Yet you have a large thirst for knowledge and wisdom. You find them to be the greatest qualities in a person and find others who do not share your wisdom to be worthless and annoying pests. Learning is one of your secret loves and your creativity is shown through your art." I smiled when I heard this. My drawings are one of the most important things to me next to education, family, and friends.

"I see you doing great things in RAVENCLAW!" The only thing I could feel myself do was grin because my smile was so wide that it hurt. I jumped off the stool happily and ran off towards the Ravenclaw table as they all cheered. My entire body felt numb with happiness as I sat down clumsily next to Penny. I wasn't paying much attention to the sorting because I kept hoping that Rosa and Karen would end up in Ravenclaw too. Then I heard Karen's name being called out. She skipped up towards the stool and jumped onto it, almost knocking it off from underneath her. Just as the hat was placed on her head, it shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!" My smile had disappeared and disappointment filled me up like ice cold tea on a hot summer day. Karen's smile had deflated as well and was replaced with dread. Knowing her temper, she couldn't feel satisfied without giving the hat a 'you suck!' before running off to join the cheering Gryffindors.

"I told you nothing ever goes right," whispered Penny. After a few more names, Rosa's was finally called. Like Karen, the hat immediately shouted a house when it was placed on her head.

"SLYTHERIN!" She calmly took the hat off and walked over to the roaring the Slytherin table with her head held high. Even though only Penny and I ended up being in the same house and dorm together, all four of us were the best of friends throughout our seven years together. We were inseparable, practically sisters.  
As I was wallowing in my disappointment, one of the last names on the list was called out.

"Trudeaux, Nathaniel." I looked up to find a tall, mocha-skinned boy walk towards the stool. He had dark brown wavy hair that were the same color as his sparkling eyes. He interested me greatly and seemed like someone I'd get along great with, so I was hoping he would be sorted into Ravenclaw. Yet I was faced with another disappointment when he was sorted into Gryffindor. He got off the stool with a cocky smile and pumped his fists in the air. All the tables burst out cheering while the Slytherin table jeered. I couldn't help but smile and cheer along while Penny just grimaced. She was a bit anti-social, but I was able to get her to open up over the years.

First year was a blast as I found that I was a natural at flying and Charms became my newest passion along with Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. I would have loved Potions as well, but Professor Snape had always scared me. Second year was also a great year, yet we found out that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers changed every year. Professor Hobner in our first year was a kind middle aged woman that would gladly stay after class with you to explain a theory or spell. Then in our second year we had gotten Professor Beckers, a cranky old man with such terrible eyesight that he could barely tell the difference between a goblin and a house elf. In our third year, we had gotten a professor who had just graduated five years ago, fresh out of Hogwarts. Yet his knowledge of dueling was so poor that there was even a rumor that a first year had defeated him in a practice round at the Dueling Club.

In our fourth year, we had gotten a professor who was passable, but was driven mad when a third year had accidentally pronounced a spell wrong and hit her with, what we students like to call, a 'crazy-spell'. So that was the end of Professor Groves and in came Professor Quirell in our fifth year. Fifth year had to be one of my more peculiar years. For one, the famous Harry Potter had arrived at Hogwarts and was sorted into Gryffindor with Karen. Since Karen was a prefect along with Rosa and Penny, they were able to lead him on his path through Hogwarts and sometimes give him a punishment or two. Professor Quirell was also a strange fellow, always stuttering as if he were butt-naked in Antarctica. Than again, it did turn out at the end of the year that Lord Voldemort was attached to the back of his head. At least it solved the mystery of why he always wore that stinky turban.

After that little fiasco, we received the ever famous Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. His adventures throughout the world were things of legend, and I never bought it for one second. While all the other girls throughout the school, including Rosa and Karen, were fawning over his looks and so-called 'intelligence', Penny and I were secretly going to the library at night and studying Defense. The only thing that brain-dead fool could teach us was his personal life, and who knew if that was true either. Not only that, but the Chamber of Secrets had opened up that year as well; just what I needed. My grades were going okay so far, but this buffoon was sure to ruin that all in due time. Attacks were happening around the school as well. Muggleborns, along with Filch's cat, were being petrified and taken to the Hospital Wing. Thankfully, the oh-so wonderful Harry Potter killed the basilisk that was causing these attacks and closed the Chamber of Secrets, thus, ending my sixth year on a high note. Another plus to everything, Lockhart did turn out to be a fake and had turned loopy because he used Ron Weasley's broken wand. Just like the saying goes in a literal and suggestive way, broken wands are never good to use.

Now, in my seventh and final year, yet another incident has happened. The infamous Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban Prison. 'This is bound to somehow get to Hogwarts,' I had thought to myself as I read the paper during the end of summer. The summer had been great though. I got to go spend it over at Karen's house along with my two other unbiological sisters Penny and Rosa. We had played Quidditch in her enormous backyard, which resulted in Rosa falling off her broom forty feet high in the air. Thankfully she had fallen into Mrs. Robert's rosebushes, but her roses didn't look so thankful afterwards. After seeing as how most of us were not as gifted with a broom as the other, we tried playing Exploding Snap. I was always a competitive little creature, so I had taken our games very seriously. In spite of this, I was not the only competitive being in our little gang. Karen had ambition and competition boiling in her bloods even before she was born.

We had came back from an entertaining day at a muggle park playing a game they call 'Frisbee'. I had thrown the disc a bit off target and it landed into the mouth of an over-excited Chihuahua named Jorge, ending our little game. As we stepped through the door into Karen's house, I had spotted the deck of cards lying innocently on her kitchen table.

"How about a game of Exploding Snap?" I had harmlessly suggested. Penny and Rosa immediately turned it down.

"No way! Every time we play that game, me and Rosa get kicked out first and you two have a battle to the death! Count me out. Rosa and I'll just go and watch some muggle T.V. I hear the show 'Friends' is pretty funny," Penny insisted. I had shrugged at that time, but it would have been a better decision not to play after what had happened later on. Karen and I had taken a seat around the table and began to play. After a few rounds, I had gotten bored and decided to twist the game around to make it more fun and competitive.

"Hey, let's see who can make the biggest house of cards. Whoever's falls first loses," I had challenged.

"You are so on!" Karen exclaimed. About ten minutes into our construction work, I had noticed my cards were looking a bit strange. Being the competitive person I am, I decided not to let something like that bother me and continued playing so I wouldn't lose. Yet later in the game, my cards were looking even worse, so I had to speak up about it.

"Hey Kare-Bear! Is it just me, or do my cards look a bit funky?"

"I was wondering why you hadn't noticed! I think they're about to-" she was cut off when my stack of cards exploded, singeing my eyebrows off. I had looked like I had robbed Santa Claus of his job, climbing down chimneys and getting covered with soot.

"-explode," Karen finished before bursting out in hysterical laughter. Apparently the explosion could be heard even through the T.V volume being blasted in another room because Penny and Rosa came running in to check on what had happened. Rosa had taken one good look at me and began giggling uncontrollably, turning away so I couldn't see her face scrunched up in mirth. Penny had been civil at first, looking at me with the most serious face that she could muster, but her defenses crumbled as well like over-cooked toast. She began laughing so hard that she was breathless, leaving me to be the only one in the room with a red face due to embarrassment instead of amusement.

"You look ridiculous! What happened?" asked Penny from her position next to the couch, holding onto it while she was bent over holding her stomach. I narrowed my eyes at her and said through clenched teeth,

"Well thanks a lot, Penny, that makes me feel great! For your information, the cards exploded on my face…" As I said that, Rosa gave out a snort, inducing Karen back into laughter right after she had just managed to calm down. "Stop you guys! How am I supposed to go outside looking like this?!" I had whined.

"You could just put a bag over your face," suggested Karen in between her laughter that had managed to die down to mild sniggering. Rosa pulled out her wand and procured a brown paper bag over my face with holes in it for my eyes.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny you guys," I told them, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I took the bag off my head and threw it at Rosa. "I'm being serious. My parents would kill me if they saw my face! They'd say that I look like my great-great uncle Wilfred!"

"What happened to your uncle Wilfred to make him look like you?" Karen had asked.

"He used to be a dragon keeper and a Ukrainian Ironbelly permanently burnt off his eyebrows. Thankfully he was already married to aunt Josephine, so she was stuck with him," I explained, as if it was a normal occurrence in anyone's life. An awkward silence came afterwards until Rosa spoke up.

"Don't you know a spell to make your eyebrows grow back? You are the Charms wiz," she had said. A figurative 'Lumos' nearly exploded over my head as I remembered such a spell.

"Merlin's beard I'm daft…Supercilia Videri!" I exclaimed, pointing my wand to my forehead. Slowly, hairs began growing out of the place where my eyebrows should have been, sowing themselves together intricately until they lay flat and neat.

"When in the world do you get the time and day to make up spells like that? It's like you were expecting your eyebrows to be burned off," Karen said incredulously.

"Trust me, after seeing my uncle Wilfred, I couldn't risk ever looking like him," I advised her, making her, Rosa, and Penny unconsciously reach up and touch their eyebrows. So, Exploding Snap was crossed off our 'to-do' list, and we were left with an ever growing epidemic that teenagers across the world were suffering with: boredom. Gratefully, school was to start in a week and we had already gotten our supplies two weeks earlier because Rosa wanted to, and quote, 'get it out of the bloody way'.

One week had passed by in a flash and all four of us were standing in front of the Hogwarts Express with our parents fawning over each of us. Rosa's parents seemed more civilized and mannered than the rest and were quietly lecturing her to make sure she got O's on her N.E.W.T's or she'd be a disgrace to the family. It was a regular day-by-day ritual that we had gotten used to. She was part of a pureblood, high-status family so she had an imagine to uphold, which she was already straining by associating with Penny and Karen. Penny was one eighth muggle and Karen was a half-blood, leaving me and Rosa to be the only purebloods.

My family was much kinder and loose than Rosa's family, however. My crazy, fun-loving family socialized with all kind of blood-status', making other regular families favor the Walkers over the much darker Salvatori's. Rosa was different from them, though. She may still have been a bit biased about different people, but she knew it was wrong to judge a person before actually knowing them because of their differences, her friendships with Karen and Penny being a great example. After my parents had gone through their '23 Questions', they each gave me a kiss goodbye and patted my bum up the train stairs, making me turn red and hoping no one saw them do this.  
Penny and Karen's parents were a bit more normal in their farewells, except Karen gave out a loud 'see yah mi burros! See? I told you I was learning another language!' before heading for the train. A sense of dread washed over me as I was hoping she wasn't speaking Spanish. As she caught up to me, I asked her what language she spoke.

"Spanish! It means family!" she said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Who in the name of Merlin's sagging beard told you that?!" I asked, nearly slapping my forehead at her naivety. Her face twisted in confusion as she tilted her head to the side slightly, a sure sign that she was clueless to its real meaning.

"The guy in the family I was spending time with during my visit to Spain. Why?" she asked hesitantly.

"Because, you genius, that means donkeys in Spanish!" I shouted out. "You just shouted to your family in front of hundreds, maybe thousands, of people 'see yah my donkeys'!" Realization dawned on her as she scrunched her nose up and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I've got a lot of explaining to do in my next letter home," she murmured. All four of us continued walking through the train until we found an empty compartment and took a seat, starting our final and most exciting year at Hogwarts.


	2. The Wandering Knight

**Author's Note: Again, I apologize for the not so superb level of writing, but I hope you all manage to enjoy the story as much as you can! Reviews would be SUPERB. Hope you all have a lovely day xD**

Ch 2: The Wandering Knight

Flowers. I was surrounded by thousands of different flowers. Poppies, roses, violets, lilies, petunias, assortments of them circling around me and making me feel like I was in a rainbow vortex. For some strange reason, I was in a yellow sun dress that reached to the top of my knees instead of my Ravenclaw uniform. My curiosity was beginning to get the best of me, so I began walking. I had no idea where I was going, but it didn't seem like there was anything else in this area besides flowers. A strong wind began blowing, making my short, wavy brown hair tussle softly around my oval face. I began looking around frantically with my droopy, dark grey eyes that were speckled with honey-brown.

"Where the hell am I?" I said to myself. Then I spotted something faraway, a dot on the horizon. Holding onto my dress so it wouldn't blow too high up, I starting running to it. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a boy clad in silver armor. He looked to be around my age, seventeen. He had short, thick brown hair that stuck out in different directions along with vibrant green eyes that were slanted down and looking a bit lost. He then noticed me running towards him and turned to look at me with his pale heart shaped face. I stopped about four feet before him, panting from the long run. I was always terrible at running, being one of the last to finish my miles in my old muggle elementary school. I didn't really know what to say to him because everything about this place was confusing me. What was even stranger was that he was seemed extremely familiar to me, like I had seen him in person before.

"Who are you?" I asked. Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked like he was struggling with himself internally, as if he didn't know who he was himself.

"I am…a knight that has lost his way," he whispered, almost as if he were trying to assure himself of that fact.

"So I'm guessing you don't know where we are?" I said, starting to get annoyed. The last thing I had remembered was sitting down and resting my head on the window of my compartment, surrounded by my three best friends.

"I am just as confused as you are, stranger," he retorted back at me, sounding pretty annoyed himself. As I plopped my bottom on the ground, trying to find out where in the world we were, I was struck by an idea. Smiling, I looked up towards the knight and could feel my own eyes glinting with joy.

"I know what's happening. I've got to be dreaming about this place! The last thing I remember is trying to fall asleep in the Hogwarts Express! And you, oh random knight, are just a figment of my imagination," I smartly stated back at him with logic. Starting to look pissed, he leaned down with his hands on his knees. After the sound of his armor creaking ceased, he looked me straight in the eyes and breathed out,

"Then why do I get the feeling that I actually know you?" My eyes involuntarily widened with surprise.

"Y-you feel it too?" I stuttered. With a nod of his head, he stood up straight again and turned away. Just as I was going to ask him another question, I heard a muffled voice calling my name. The knight turned his head sideways so I could only see the side of his head.

"You have to leave now," he said without looking at me. "I think we may be seeing each other again, and not just in our dreams." He started walking away then, leaving me behind with the faint sound of his shin greaves shuffling. I shot up on my feet again and began running after him, my white sandals flip-flopping underneath me.

"Wait, who are you damn it!" I shouted after him. Everything began blacking out and the last thing I remembered seeing was the knight's back facing , I began opening my eyes and could see the view from outside of the compartment window that my head was leaning against. I sat up in my seat and noticed that the voice calling my name had belonged to Penny.

"Hey, you better get in your robes, we're almost at Hogwarts," she told me. Her black hair was at medium length this year and styled into a choppy bob that surrounded her square face. I looked around to find that everybody else already had on their robes, yet we each had different badges adorned on them. Rosa, who's usual frizzy brown hair was curled today, had the Head Girl badge on this year and used to have the prefect badges last year and the year before. Karen, who decided to grow out her straight, chestnut brown hair to two inches below her shoulders, had on her prefect badge this year as well, which she had since her fifth year.

For Penny and I, on the other hand, it was always tough to become prefects because of all the brainiacs and goody-two-shoes' in our house. Our prefect in fifth year was Penelope Clearwater, yet Penny managed to steal the position in sixth year and now I proudly wore the badge this year. I had also been the Quidditch Captain in my fifth and sixth year since I had been Chaser since second year. Yet I quit Quidditch this year to focus more on my studies and gave the Captain position to Roger Davies, who was more than qualified for it.

"Alright, lemme just get it out of my luggage," I grunted as I began pulling my heavy suitcase down from the ledge above my head. After throwing my robes on, I sat back down and saw the title on the Daily Prophet that Karen was reading. Karen noticed me staring at it and turned it around to see what I was looking at with her chocolate brown eyes. She smirked and looked up at me.

"That bastard Sirius Black still hasn't been caught. I've gotta give him props, though. To get past those dreadful Dementors and not be caught by them for months? Absolutely genius," she told me. Rosa narrowed her nearly black eyes and sneered at Karen in disgust for her previous comment.

"You're actually complimenting that disgusting rat? I may be pureblooded, but even I understand that he's worse than scum for what he did," she spat at Karen. Raising her hands up in defense, Karen said, "Hey, I'm just saying that if he's such a slimy git, he must have been pretty slimy to slip past those Dementors."

"Stop arguing, you guys. We're about to get to Hogwarts and I don't want my last year to start off in a pissed mood," I told them, whipping out my prefect voice. Their argument came to an end as Penny and I began talking about the muggle bands we loved. I may be a pureblood, but I prefer muggle music over wizarding music. Muggle music just felt more natural and the lyrics could actually touch a person, unlike wizarding music. A person couldn't truly relate to 'and when you said goodbye, I could feel my wand break in two'. Just as we had gotten past The Beatles and moved on to New Order, the train came to a screeching halt, the lights flickering on and off until it stayed off.

As previous and current prefects and Head Girl, we stood up and went outside of the compartment to check what was happening.

"I told you we should have gone to the prefect and head compartment like we're supposed to. We would have been more prepared," Rosa whispered. I pulled out my wand from my robes and whispered, "Lumos." Now that we had a light to lead us through the train, we could see other students' heads poking out of their compartment doors to see what was going on.

"Don't worry, we'll see what's going on, just stay in your compartments until we say it's all ok," Karen told them all. A tiny third year was about to disagree, but after she saw three of us wearing prefect and Head Girl badges, she thought better of it and returned to her compartment. Everyone else followed her example as we continued walking down the corridor. We were nearly at the front of the train when the temperature began decreasing rapidly. Pretty soon I could see my own breathe in front of me coming out as puffs of white smoke.

"Why is it getting so cold?" I asked, clouds of smoke coming out of my mouth with each word.

"Venit Aestus," whispered Penny, pointing her wand in between all four of us. Warmth spread through me like a wildfire, and soon I wasn't able to see my breathe in front of me anymore. Penny and I continued walking, but we noticed that Karen and Rosa were still standing where we previously were.

"Hey, come on guys, keep wa-" I stopped in my tracks as I turned to see why they stood frozen in their spots. Standing ten steps away from them was a huge Dementor. Penny looked at my face curiously and turned to see why I had paled. She immediately raised her wand up, ready to defend herself. She had the most battle-ready reflexes out of the four of us.

"Shoot," she hissed. "I have no idea how to go up against a Dementor. You got any clues, Scar?" I got an idea, but I knew I wasn't prepared to use that specific spell. Raising my wand slowly, I nodded my head as I began thinking of happy memories. I remembered the year I had led the Ravenclaw Quidditch team to victory, winning the house cup in my fifth year after brutally beating the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Karen hadn't been so happy, but Penny and I enjoyed the party our house had hosted in our common room. Determined, I carefully enunciated the Dementor countering spell.

"Expecto Patronum!" Nothing was coming out of my wand, and I could feel my happiness and consciousness slowly slipping away.

"What spell was that?" Penny asked incredulously.

"It's a defensive spell against Dementors. It'll send them away from us," I told her in unsteady heavy pants, my vision starting to turn black. "Just think of your happiest memory and say the spell." Penny scoffed.

"Well that'll take me a while," she grumbled.

"We don't have a while, Penny. At least, I don't," I breathed out. I began stumbling and I held onto the knob of the closest compartment door. I could hear Penny shouting out my name, but it came out stifled, like my ears were being stuffed with cotton balls. Right when I thought I was surely going to pass out, I saw a silver light attack the Dementor, pushing it out of my line of sight, which was slowly dwindling into blackness. I fell on my bum, which was numb at the moment, and leaned my cold, sweaty head on the wall. The last thing I heard before I became completely unconscious was a slap after Karen said to Penny, "You totally almost shit in your pants!"

* * *

When I woke up for the second time that day, I was lying on the seat of an empty compartment. I pulled myself up slowly and looked at my reflection in the window. Even now I looked extremely pale, my hair was sticking to my face because of the sweat that still lingered there. Then I heard the click of the compartment door opening and I whipped my head around, finding a man standing there. He was tall and thin, wearing shabby, patched up robes. Scars covered his face and he had sandy hair that was peppered with gray, making him look older than he should be. His grey-blue eyes looked at me with concern as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bar of Honeydukes chocolate.

"Here, eat this, you'll feel better," he told me, his voice hoarse as if he hadn't used it for years. I hesitated for a moment, my mother's shrill voice screaming in my head not to except food from strangers. But, he seemed kind and innocent, so I reached out and grabbed the piece of chocolate he had broken off for me. I plopped it into my mouth and ate it slowly, trying to savor it.

"Mmmmm…" I moaned unintelligently. I had forgotten that I wasn't the only person in the compartment so I looked up at the man sheepishly. "Sorry. Caramel filled is my favorite," I informed him as I laughed nervously. He smiled and chuckled at me before he sat down in front of my seat. Karen, Rosa, and Penny walked into the compartment at that moment as well. Watching me carefully with her brown eyes that were flecked with green, Penny asked, "You feelin' better, Scarlett?" I nodded my head at her reassuringly, being rendered incapable of speech because I was still chewing on the caramel filled chocolate. They all looked relieved when color began pouring back in my face. The chocolate seemed to be doing its job.

"We're lucky Professor Lupin here got to us on time, or else all of us would've passed out like you," Rosa told me. 'So that's who he is,' I thought to myself as Penny retorted to Rosa sarcastically, drawing out each syllable, "No, we would've totally beaten the crap out of that Dementor." Swallowing my chocolate, I asked the professor, "Are you going to be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" He nodded before he got to his feet, brushing his robes off as if they were covered in dust.

"Yes, I will. Now that your friends are here, they'll be able to keep an eye on you to make sure you'll be alright," he told me. "I'm going to go up to the conductor and see what's happening. That was the second Dementor I encountered on the train.

"Second? What happened with the first?" Karen asked. The professor told us how the Dementor had attacked Harry Potter and his two best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

"I had driven the Dementor away, but not before Harry passed out," Professor Lupin finished. Rosa smirked and whispered, "What a wimp, he didn't even fight it and he passed out." Rosa, like most of her Slytherin housemates, held a little hatred for Harry Potter. Professor Lupin gave her a strange, confused look before opening the compartment door and stepping outside. "I will see you four in my class soon then," he declared with a smile and then closed the door. After I was sure the faint sound of his footsteps stopped, I got up and opened the door. I was going to step out, but Karen got in my way and said, "Hey! Where do you think you're going? You're supposed to be resting." I tried stepping around her, but she kept stepping in front of where I wanted to go.

"I want to know what's happening, don't you?" I asked her. I knew she was curious like me, so it was easy to get her on my side. She was extremely stubborn today, though, probably PMS-ing.

"Yah, but you just passed out. If you go out there right now, you might pass out again," she told me, insisting that I sit down again. I sighed and sat down, crossing my arms as I slouched in my seat.

"Fine, mom," I told her firmly, putting emphasis on the word 'mom'. Narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously, Karen hesitantly took a seat back in the compartment. After a few more minutes of awkward silence, the compartment door opened yet again. A tall, muscular boy that held himself self overconfidently waltzed in with two other tall boy. They were both the same age as us except that they were in different houses. When Karen saw them walk in, her face perked up and she squealed, "Hey, cuddle-muffins!" The cocky guy smirked and said "Hey babes," before planting a lazy kiss on Karen's cheek and plopping himself next to her. Michael Andrews had grown quite a lot since the day of the sorting when he tripped, making me and Karen laugh hysterically.

We had all noticed the change in him during our third year, Karen noticing the most. After the young Gryffindor finally grew into his then-large ears, he had begun to grow much more attractive. He began growing taller in height, and after playing Quidditch outside for fun with friends, his figure started to fill-out with muscles and his pale complexion started to get much tanner until it was practically permanent. The older he got, the more stylish he became with his appearances as well. His sandy brown hair was now swept backwards in thick waves, making his hazel eyes more prominent. However, along with his new-found good looks came a new-found attitude. Michael was the most self-absorbed boy in school, always walking around and flirting with other girls. I was never sure when to tell Karen about this, but they had been going out since fifth year and she was obviously crazy about him.

As Karen and Michael began snuggling close together, making everyone else in the compartment uncomfortable, I noticed Rosa staring up at one of the other boys wistfully. Her attention was on Donatello Giovanni, her fellow Italian Slytherin house mate and the seventh year Slytherin prefect. He looked around at all of us lazily with his dark brown eyes until they were set on Rosa. Smiling lightly, he nodded at her and said, "Hey Rosa." Trying to hold in her bashful-giggle, she responded in high-pitch, "Hey Don!" She'd been eyeing Don since our second year. Sometimes it had become unbearable whenever she had gone off talking about his 'perfect blow-dried hair', which was cut short and thick, or his 'deliciously pouty mouth'. It was adorably sweet though sometimes, so we let it slide. Finally deciding that standing in the doorway until they arrived at Hogwarts wasn't such a good idea, Don took a seat next to Rosa while his other friend sat uneasily next to Karen.

"Hey there John. Sorry about the whole.. err… setting," Penny said, apologizing on behalf of Karen's public affection. Penny hated that as well, always saying how it just made people unnecessarily uncomfortable and awkward. John, the other boy, smiled sadly at her and said, "It's all good." Practically all of Hogwarts knew about John Fowler being in love with Karen, his fellow Gryffindor, except for Karen herself and Michael. What made the situation even sadder was the fact that Karen had liked him in third year, but he had his eyes set on school and school only until fourth year, a little too late. My friends were a confusing bunch when it came to love, but as long as they were happy, I didn't really give a flying Hippogriff.

Some would say that he resembled Cedric Diggory, the new Hufflepuff fifth year prefect. John's jaw, which was covered with a bit of acne, was more square then Diggory's though. He had dirty blonde hair that was slicked back with gel and pearl white skin along with a pair of brown eyes that couldn't stop looking at Karen longingly.

"So John, how were your O.W.L results?" I asked him casually, trying to make conversation over the sound of Karen and Michael snogging each other senselessly.

"They were pretty good, I got five O's. Mum was so proud that she attempted to make a celebratory cake. It didn't taste so good, but no one can really tell her that. She's real sensitive," he said, grimacing as he began remembering how the cake tasted.

"All my mom can cook is noodles and rice," Penny grumbled.

"Well that's not stereotypical…" I whispered, earning a whack on the arm by Penny. This little spat seemed to take John's attention away from Karen because he began laughing and making more conversation with us until the train came to a stop. We all got up to go and as we were walking through the train, I noticed someone that looked around our age and didn't seem familiar. He had medium length, wavy black hair that encircled his long, chiseled face. What captured me to him the most were his sapphire blue eyes. It was as if I were looking into the deepest parts of the ocean. Rosa noticed I had slowed down and tried to find what I was looking at. She noticed the guy and looked confused.

"Who's he? I've never seen him here before," she asked.

"Me neither," I murmured. While I was becoming preoccupied in trying to watch him and walk at the same time, I had bumped into a random person and fell to the ground. I tried to get back up, but people began trampling me, forcing me to stay on the floor. When the flow of hopped-up-on-hormone teenagers ceased, I got up to find that the hall was deserted. I grabbed my luggage and went to get off the train, but to my horror, the door was locked.

"Ohhhhh no…no no no no no! This cannot be happening! I can't be locked in the train!" I began shouting desperately. Right when I was about to pull out my wand and unlock the door, I felt the train start up and begin moving. Now panicking, I pulled my wand out quickly from my robes with shaking hands.

"Alohomora!" I yelled, pointing my wand at the handle. It wouldn't budge at all.

"They've gotta be magically locked," I sighed in defeat. 'I can't possibly be going all the way back to London!' I thought to myself. I still hadn't given up hope yet, so I began looking for the other exits. All the others were locked as well, leaving me with only one choice left.

"I should've done this in the beginning," I told myself, just showing how bad I thought under pressure. I ended up sprinting toward the end of the train that the conductor was at, hoping to convince him to take me back to Hogwarts. When I got to his quarters, his door was also locked. I started shouting and banging on the door to get his attention, but he had gotten them to be soundproof.

"You stupid buffoon! Open this door immediately before I blast them open!" I yelled. "I'm gonna be late for my last year at Hogwarts damn it! Don't ruin my last year already!" By that point I had given up, so I went looking for the coziest compartment in the train. As I was nearing the end of the train, I heard a voice groaning. 'Must just be the train wheels making noises. This isn't the safest of trains,' I assured myself. I took my seat in a compartment and pulled out one of my many books that I had charmed to fit in my luggage and began to read. I didn't know how much time had passed, it could have been seconds, minutes, hours even. Just when I thought that I was probably just hearing things, I heard the groan again.

"Okay, that definitely sounds like a person," I said. "But who else would be as stupid as me and get stuck on the train?" Holding tight onto my wand, I got up, pulled the compartment door open, and sprinted out. Although, before I could go farther than just two steps, I collided with something solid. I crashed onto the floor, dropping my wand in the process of my clumsiness. I reached for my wand when I heard the voice of a guy saying, "Sorry! I accidentally fell asleep in the compartment and wandered out. I'm new, the name's Ethan Knight." I turned around to apologize as well and introduce myself, but gasped when I saw who was standing in front of me. When he saw me as well, his vibrant, slanted green eyes widened along with my eyes.

"It's you!" we both shouted simultaneously.


	3. A New Star At Hogwarts

Ch 3: A New Star At Hogwarts

"What the hell are you doing here?" I screeched. Staring me straight in the eyes was the knight from my dreams.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? I thought I just dreamed you up!" he shouted back at me. He turned around quickly and began wringing his hands together in frustration.

"You dreamed about me too?! Okay, I can only take one weird thing a day, and that's my friends. So if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you calmed your weird down a bit," I barked back at him sardonically. He whipped around and narrowed his eyes at me. Slowly stalking towards me with his head lowered and eyes boring into me, he hissed, "I'm being too weird now, am I? Well how 'bout you think about this, princess." At this point his face was inches away from mine and he spat out the word princess, causing me to flinch. He was so close that I could see light splashes of honey-brown in his green eyes. "My entire life's been nothing but weird, and you waltzing into my dreams doesn't make anything better. And now, my brother's wandered off somewhere too and he's probably lost!" Brother? Well that was definitely new.

"Brother? Oh great, there's a relative of yours out there somewhere just begging to come dancing into my dream's too…" I grumbled. He sighed and turned around again, yet he didn't stop. He walked into a compartment and returned with his luggage and a large cagewith a silver owl in it. It began squawking loudly, jumping about and rattling the cage.

"Don't worry, Sterling, you'll be free from your cage soon," he whispered to the owl with affection. I had a pet myself, a pitch black owl I had named Shadow. My father had borrowed it for a little while and told me he'd send it back to me the first day of school. 'If things are going as they are now, I have a feeling I won't be getting Shadow back for a while,' I thought to myself with melancholy. "I'm going to try and find a way out, unlike you. So if you'd like to get to Hogwarts too, I suggest you attach yourself to me like a leech," he said briefly before walking off quickly with his luggage and owl in tow. Hoping he'd have better luck with the doors, I ran off after him after getting my luggage. However, when I looked out the window, I gasped.

"Wait!" I shouted out. He turned around exasperatedly and snapped, "What is it now?" When I caught up with him, I pointed to the window. He turned towards the window and cussed profusely under his breath.

"Were already in the middle of nowhere. If we open the door and step out, we'll surely fall to our doom," he muttered darkly.

"Great, always thinking bright, happy thoughts," I said with fake happiness. His sarcasm and negativity was starting to remind me of Penny. He sneered at me before he began looking off to the distance deep in thought. He began muttering about brooms and spells. I had pulled out my wand at this point and felt bored, so I began twirling it around and dropping it a few times, each time forcing me to bend down and pick it up.

"If I do manage to open this door," he started, pointing at the door a few steps ahead of us, "it will only work if you have a broom with you." At hearing this I felt a large, silly grin begin plastering itself onto my face.

"Broom I can do, oh mysterious knight. Anything else?" I asked as I began pulling out my Nimbus 2000. He looked hesitantly at me as I stood confidently, holding my broom with its bush end touching the ground.

"Are you good with your wand? You know, spells and all that," he asked. I began laughing at this. He started turning red in embarrassment and barked out, "What's so funny?" After I had managed to calm down, a replied to him.

"Am I good with spells? Am 'I' good with 'spells'?! It's like asking if I can eat ten bars of Honeydukes best chocolate! Of course I am! It's my passion!" I informed him, as if it were completely obvious.

"You know bragging isn't a nice quality," he grumbled while pulling out his wand and staring at the handle of the train door ferociously. Smirking, I held my wand at the door and said, "It's not bragging if it's the truth. Praecipio Tibi Ut Aperias!" The handle gave a little twitch, but didn't open. Ethan looked up at me in bewilderment and asked, "What kind of spell was that?"

"Well, I'm known to be able to make up spells on the spot. It's a talent of mine, probably thanks to the fact that I learned Latin in my third year since my mum has ancient Latin blood in her," I told him. The only people I had told that to were my three closest friends. Of course they completely flipped out, especially Rosa. "Did you know that Italians are descendents from the ancient Latin civilization? So you're technically part Italian, isn't that great!" she told me, as if she were Professor Binns teaching me about history. "No, she's absolutely devastated Rosa," Penny had said sarcastically.

"No wonder I recognized it. Lucky for you, I happen to have been taught Latin in my previous school," he mumbled as he started throwing random spells at the door.

"…odd…" I whispered. He only gave me the tiniest sideways glance before continuing with what he was doing. After a few more minutes of him throwing spells, he ran out of them and turned to me.

"That last spell you did seems to be the only spell that worked the closest to opening the door. Just keep trying it until you eventually, or rather, hopefully get it to open," he told me. I sighed and walked to the door. I kept throwing the spell at the door, one time, two times, until it was almost the twenty fifth time.

"This isn't going to work! I obviously need to do something else if I'm going to open this door. This spell can't stand alone, it needs a partner along with it," I told Ethan. He began getting lost in his thoughts again, it seemed like something he did often.

"Try thinking powerful thoughts. In the spell, your trying to command the door to open, so try envisioning in your mind that your opening the door with your own hands," he told me. I took a deep breathe before closing my eyes, concentrating hard on picturing myself opening the door. With my eyes still closed, I uttered the spell again.

"Praecipio Tibi Ut Aperias." At first, the door struggled against my command. After I gave it a forceful command in my mind to open the hell up, it finally flung open. Along with the sense of joy and accomplishment I felt after getting the spell down came the extreme winds from outside that were blowing me backwards.

"Alright, great job! I'm really impressed! I haven't seen a person so brilliant at spells since my…" he trailed off, his face going from bliss to sadness. I'd get to the bottom of his sadness another day, right now was our time to escape.

"What are we supposed to do now?" I asked him, waking him from his stupor. He cleared his throat before saying, "Alright, we're going to mount our brooms and then perform a shield spell to protect ourselves from the wind. If your in trouble, just shoot out a red jet of light into the air to get my attention."

"You'll do the same thing?" I asked. He nodded his head before getting on his broom with his wand in hand. I got on my broom as well and had my wand ready when he asked if I was prepared.

"Alright, on the count of three," he began, "one, two, three!" We burst into the air, dust clouds floating behind us right when we performed a shield spell. To describe how it feels when flying on a broom is nearly impossible because there were just no words to describe the amount of joy I felt. I felt so free, like a bird soaring across the world, traveling to the very corners of this planet. I sometimes envy my owl Shadow. It must feel invigorating and thrilling to be able to fly anywhere you please without adults telling you where to go or what to do. Flying on my broom just felt like I was pouring all my negative energy out into the air, of course getting recycled. No one likes a loiterer.

Just as I pulled myself out of my thoughts, I noticed that I was lagging behind and that Ethan was far ahead of me, just a speck above the mountains and hilltops. I decided to put a little push into my flying and I felt myself speeding up, slowly catching up to Ethan. I was getting so close, but then I found that I was about to get into a headlong collision with a flock of crows. "Why me, damn it," I whined loudly. I tried to move out of the birds' way, but their group was enormous and it was hard to avoid the inevitable. I began swerving around each of the birds, but they were so jam packed together that I ran into some. Their beaks and claws ripped apart my uniform and the scratched my body and face. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that when I opened them, I'd be out of the black cloud of feathers.

When I opened my eyes, a large, fat crow smacked me straight in the face, whacking me off my broom and sending me hurtling to the ground that was over thousands of feet underneath me. I was too surprised to scream, but I was definitely terrified. As I was spinning down to the ground, I pulled out my wand and pointed it to myself.

"Aresto Momentum!" I shouted. I felt myself slow down as I got closer to the forest underneath me. While I was floating down, I could see Hogwarts a couple of miles away, its bright lights standing out against the dark like stars. A few seconds later, I finally crashed through the trees and landed on the ground roughly. My back was aching and my legs felt numb. I was too afraid to move any of my body parts incase they were broken, but I was forced to when I heard a tree branch snap, as if someone or something stepped on it.  
I sat up slowly and brushed leaves and branches out of my hair. I then tried to get up on my feet, but a sharp pain shot up from my ankle to my knees.

"Ouch," I hissed, trying to keep my voice down to make sure that if something or someone was out there, they wouldn't find me. I dragged myself to the nearest tree and used it to help myself get up. After I was finally standing unsteadily, I grabbed my wand and pointed it in the air, whispering, "Stupefy!" A red jet of light shot out of my wand and into the sky. Hoping that Ethan would see, I began walking carefully through the forest. Soon, I began noticing a throbbing pain on my right arm and checked it. There was a large gash on my bicep and it was starting to dry fast. I had nothing to tie over it so I just put my left hand on it, hoping it wouldn't get infected.

It felt like hours had passed by the time I reached a little pond, when in reality, it had only been twenty minutes. When I went to see if the water was clean enough to drink, I saw my dreadful reflection. To be honest, I was a complete and utter mess. My hair was in tangles and sticking out at all angles, my face was covered with dirt and dried smudges of blood, and my clothes were ripped in all places and covered in what I was hoping was just mud and dirt. I had cuts and bruises all over my body, just adding onto my low self-esteem. There was no way that Nathaniel Trudeaux would even give me the light of day if he saw me coming into school looking like this.

Deciding that not dying from dehydration was more important then being scared that fish had probably pooped in this pond, I put my hands together and placed them into the water. After I got a good amount of water in my hands, I pulled them out and placed them to my chapped lips. I drank it eagerly, reaching for more when I was finished. I was still drinking the water when I heard a snap behind me again. I turned my head around quickly, looking around to see if there really was anything nearby.

"Hello?" I called out tentatively. "Is there anyone out there?" The only thing I could hear were more twigs being snapped and occasional bushes being ruffled. I stood up carefully and began walking ahead again, yet faster this time. I could still hear noises behind me, but it was getting faster, so I started running. Since my legs hurt, I was limping the entire way through the forest. As I got farther into the forest, I could see an enormous log up ahead. When I finally reached it, it was about the height of a two story building and its length extended far beyond the naked eye could see. I was beyond terrified at this point, so I began hysterically pounding the log with both of my hands.

"No! Get me out of here! Get me out!" I started wailing, tears pouring down my face. I could hear a deep growl come from behind me. A took a step back and tried to think of a spell that could let me pass through. I finally thought of one and shouted, "Incendio!" A large burst of flame shot out of my wand and hit the log, burning a hole through it big enough for me to walk through. I bent down low enough so I wouldn't hit my head and waddled through it and out the other end. I looked through the hole to see what was chasing me, and screamed at what I saw. Bursting out of the bushes was a large, black spider the size of a minivan. To close up the hole so the spider couldn't get through it, I commanded, "Herbivicus." Plants and tree roots began sprouting rapidly in front of the hole, entangling themselves together tightly. When I was sure the plants and roots would hold off the spider for a little longer, I turned around and continued running off towards Hogwarts, hoping that help would finally find me.

After a long period of time, I could see a clearing ahead of me. Smiling for the first time since I had gotten stuck on the Hogwarts Express, I tried running faster. My leg was in such terrible shape now that I was afraid it would give out right before I finally got out of the forest. I finally made it to the clearing and could see Hogwarts right across the field that was in front of me. I gave out a victory cry and continued walking across the field. When I finally made it to the doors, I found that they were locked.

"Great, another locked door," I shouted exasperatedly. I used the spell I had used on the train to open the door, except I had to now envision using a key to open the lock. It had worked after the third time and the door opened up slowly, creaking loudly. I rushed inside and closed the door behind me, but not before I saw the large spider reach the clearing and stop. It looked at me and gave one last, venomous hiss before skittering off back into the forest. When I turned away from the door to continue walking through the school, I ran directly into the chest of my potions professor.

"Well look who finally decided to show up. How was your little adventure through the forest? Exhilarating, no? I'm guessing from the looks of your clothes that it was," he taunted at me, slowly drawling out each vowel. I looked down at my dusty shoes and gave a nod. He began chuckling darkly before grabbing my bad arm roughly, pulling me towards what I was hoping was the Hospital Wing. I hissed from the pain and reached for the gash on my arm. Professor Snape noticed this and looked at what was bothering me. He grimaced before loosening his grip on my arm, still dragging me off somewhere.

Sadly, he had taken me straight to the Headmasters office. We were standing in front of the gargoyle and Professor Snape said the password.

"Fudge doodles," he grumbled. I would have begun laughing if the situation weren't so serious. We stood on the stairs and they began moving on their own accord until they came to a stop at the door to the Headmasters office. He opened the door and pushed me in lightly. I was surprised to see who was in the office. Professor Dumbledore was sitting in the chair behind his desk while Ethan sat in a chair across from him. Next to Ethan was the boy I had seen in the train with the sapphire eyes. They all turned their heads to see who had walked in and a look of relief passed over Ethan's face.

"You're alive! Oh thank god! I thought you were a goner!" he said.

"I sent up the red light! Why didn't you answer my cry for help, you dolt?" I shouted at him, limping my way threateningly towards him with my wand raised. The boy with the blue eyes stood up quickly and stepped in front of Ethan protectively.

"Whoa, wait, don't blame him immediately. He saw your red light, but Headmaster told him to wait here while he sent professors to go out to look for you," he told me. His voice was like velvet, caressing my ears with their soft sound.

"Calm down this instance, you ungrateful little-"

"Severus, be calm. I'm sure we can all work this out peacefully. Lemon drop?" said Professor Dumbledore, offering me a lemon drop. I politely turned him down before looking at the blue eyed boy.

"What are you doing here, this is none of your business," I told him. I usually wasn't such a rude and snappy person, but today was not my best day to date.

"Actually, it is his business. He's my brother," Ethan said, standing up immediately when I began confronting the new boy. I turned to Ethan and back at the new guy with wide eyes.

"Brother? You're actually related to this guy? You don't even look alike!" I said, not knowing whether to laugh or be annoyed.

"Well, we're actually just step-brothers, but we've been step-brothers since we were in elementary school, so we're not into the specifics," the new guy told me. He then looked like he remembered something. "I'm being so rude, where are my manners," he said, slapping his forehead lightly with palms of his hands. He grabbed my hand that wasn't covered in blood and said, "Charles Orion Creswell, at your service," before bending down and kissing my hand, still holding my gaze. I started looking around the room rapidly, trying not to meet his gaze as I began blushing furiously. Professor Snape sneered before sarcastically saying, "What a sweet moment. How about we all kiss and hug and play hopscotch and just forget everything that has just taken place." I quickly pulled my hand out of Charles' hand after remembering that there were others in the room.

I deliberately coughed before saying, "Well, Charles, you weren't in the train while we were stuck in it. You weren't in the forest with me either, so I suggest you sit down and wait until I figure who exactly was supposed to save me out there." I turned to Professor Dumbledore and pointedly stared at him. He just smiled at me warmly like a grandfather would to their grandchild, at least I guessed so. My grandfather had died in the first war before my parents had even met each other, so I never got to meet him.

"Your Head of House was on his way to retrieve you, but seeing as how you have made it here by yourself, Severus will send him a Patronus telling him that you are safe," he told me kindly, turning to Professor Snape with that same smile. It seemed that the smile had a different affect on him because he looked furious as he walked out of the office, turning around sharply with his cloak billowing behind him. I looked away from the door Professor Snape exited out of and looked at the Creswell-Knight brothers. I had just noticed that they were each wearing a uniform of a different house, Ethan in Slytherin and Charles in Ravenclaw with me. I smiled at this, happy to know that I got the nice brother in my house.

"Who are you guys, anyway? I don't remember seeing you here at Hogwarts," I asked. They both looked at each other, exchanging looks before turning to me and simultaneously saying, "We exchanged schools." This perked my interest. I had never seen or heard of students in magical schools transferring to different ones.

"Really? Where did you guys go before? Was it here around the UK? You guys have an English accent, so it's gotta be close," I asked.

"Naw, we came from Durmstrang," Charles told me before Ethan could silence him.

"Hey, stop telling her everything! Like she told you before, it's none of her business, so she can just go and walk away right now," Ethan said brusquely. Charles gave me an apologetic look before saying, "It's alright. She seems cool, she'll probably understand." Understand? Well, well, well, looks like the knight in shining armor has got a few issues on his plate. Ethan threw up his hands in defeat and walked tersely to the door. As he grabbed the handle, he stopped and told me, "You might be able to get information out of him, but you won't get any out of me, princess." This just irked me even more.

"Stop. Calling. Me. Princess! I'm not spoiled, unlike you!" I shouted. I was going to go and punch the living daylights out of him, but Charles lay a gentle hand on my shoulder, stopping me by saying, "Please don't. He's not always like this, he's just been having a rough time this month." His voice was soothing, like I was listening to the gentle sound of waves crashing on the beach. Ethan scoffed before opening the door and attempting to run out. Instead, he crashed into three people, one of them dropping all their books.

"Damn it Penny! I told you someone was gonna open it! Professor Snape almost caught us before, and he would have if it weren't forme!" said a familiar voice. I turned around to find Rosa, Karen, and Penny at the door. Penny had been holding a stack of books and papers in her hands, and bent down to retrieve them at the same time that Ethan was going to.

"I'm so sorry!" Penny and Ethan said at the same time. As they each reached for a book, they touched hands and looked up at each other, their eyes locking with each other. Penny thrust her hand backwards, blushing madly, before murmuring another sorry and reaching for a different book. For some odd reason, Ethan smiled sweetly at this and reached for more books. After they each picked up everything that was dropped, Ethan gave his share of findings and said, "Again, I'm sorry I knocked over your books. My name is Ethan Knight, I'm new here. What's your name?" I thought it would have been impossible, but this just caused Penny to blush even more as she was staring down at her feet.

"My name's P-Pandora Gomez. But everybody just calls me Penny," she whispered, taking a chance by peeking up at Ethan through her bangs. Ethan's smile grew wider before saying, "Pandora. That's a beautiful name. Penny sounds sweet as well. I hope I'll be seeing you around some time, Penny." He began walking out the door, the whole time watching Penny with glittering eyes. When he was finally out of site, Penny let out a huge gasp of air. I hadn't noticed that she had been holding her breathe for so long. Karen had her mischievous face planted on right now, so I knew she was going to tease Penny mercilessly about what happened, but Professor Dumbledore came to the rescue by clapping his hands together.

"Well, now that your friends are here, they can help take you to the Hospital Wing to get checked up and healed." Penny's blush had died down and she sighed with relief.

"Phew! Saved by the Dumbledore!" she said. We all laughed and began walking to the door, Charles helping me by holding me up around the waist. The closeness was making me blush lightly again, but I tried to make conversation to make the awkwardness go away.

"So, your middle name is Orion, eh? Isn't that a constellation?" I asked curiously. He chuckled a little, his chest giving out a deep rumble.

"Yah, it's kind of a family thing. We're related to the Blacks, they always had a tradition of naming children after constellations," he said casually. When he said he was related to the Blacks, my heart nearly gave out.

"You're related to the Blacks?!" I choked out, but not nearly loud enough to be heard by the others in front of us. His face became anxious and he shushed me gently, putting a finger to his lips.

"Please don't tell anybody else that. I'm nothing like the Black family! Everybody will judge me right away if they knew. Could this be just our little secret?" he pleaded with me. As he looked at me with his round, sapphire eyes, I couldn't say no to him. I smiled and assured him, "Of course I won't. I'm a very trustworthy person, you can be sure that I'll keep all your secrets." He breathed out a sigh of relief, continuing to help me at a faster pace.

"So," I continued, "you're named after a bunch of stars. I guess we've got a new star here at Hogwarts besides Harry Potter." He laughed out loudly, his voice echoing in the hallway we had just reached.


End file.
